Happy Mother's Day!
I hope all my "moms" have enjoyed their special day! Thank you for taking time out of your day on Friday to come up and spend some special time with us. For the next few weeks we have left of school, you will notice the format of this blog is a bit different. Please take a minute to carefully read over each section to ensure you are getting all the important class information.
Phonics/Writing: We continued our study of commonly misspelled words. This type of spelling unit is designed to improve our writing. Once a word is on this list, the expectation is that it is spelled correctly from that point forward in your child's writing. It is a great idea to keep these words on your fridge or somewhere convenient for your child to periodically review these words over the summer! Our words for this Friday (May 18th test) are
were, didn't, asked, caught, different, really, there, eight, before, friendly
This will be our final spelling unit!!!
Reading: We completed our chapter book, Dolphin Song, and began our new chapter book, The Boxcar Children. We also worked on two different 2nd grade story packets that emphasized skills such as answering questions in complete sentences and sequencing events in a story.
Math: We worked on our tile math mats with our 5th grade book buddies to practice addition and subtraction. We took final assessments on addition/subtraction, number representation, and word problems. Please look over all of these assessments that are coming home. If you notice your child is struggling on any of these key areas in math, the summer offers a great time to practice these skills. Your child should be very confident adding and subtracting two digit numbers...I noticed that some children are not consistently applying the strategies that we've covered all year long. We have finished the superstar quizzes (timed math facts quizzes) for the year! YEAH! I am so proud of how far the children have come in memorizing their math facts.
Class News and Reminders...
Congratulations to Chayse McKinney for being chosen as this week's teacher's helper! Way to go on following all those important classroom rules and being an excellent example to your peers...WOOHOO!
Thank you, Mrs. Farley, for you VERY generous snack donation last week! We will not be needing to send home the snack sack any more this year. She donated enough to last us through the end of the school year.
Thank you to all the parents who helped us on Field Day! The kids had so much fun.
We will have our yearbook signing on Monday, May 21st. If your child does not have a yearbook, NO WORRIES! We will be making autograph books for all the students who need one!
Remember to mark your calendars for our last two days of school, which will be 1/2 days! Dismissal will begin at 12:05. We will also be having sack lunches on those days, so plan accordingly if your child does not like the school sack lunches.
Many parents have asked the important question, "WHAT SHOULD MY CHILD DO OVER THE SUMMER TIME SO WE DON'T LOSE ALL THIS GROWTH WE'VE MADE THIS YEAR?" That is a wonderful question and if you are interested, here are some suggestions...
1. Set aside time (an hour is great) EVERY day during the week for quiet brain time! Have your child go to his/her room and pick either reading or writing to do for that hour. One trick that works really well with my girls is I say, "Okay, tell me when you are in your room and ready and I'll set the timer." I've never had any procrastinating since they know that they are telling me when they are ready to begin. As soon as they hear that timer, they can come out.
2. Activity suggestions while your child is in his/her room are write a letter to someone, read a chapter in their book and illustrate the main idea, read one chapter and write what they think will happen next, go on a "verb" or a "noun" hunt from their book and then write sentences of their own containing those words, read a chapter then write a descriptive paragraph about the main character. Every child should be reading daily!
3. Devote some time each week to go to "math facts practice" at the suggested websites at the bottom of this blog...my favorite is the math magician! How many math fact sets can they pass? Have a race with your child!
4. Play SALUTE with your child to practice finding the missing addend in an addition problem...this is SUPER math fact practice. A deck of cards and three players are needed. Your child is VERY familiar with this game.
5. Keep a summer journal and every Friday, write all about their favorite activity from that week. Emphasize the importance of keeping that paragraph format that we have enforced all year long in our writing. There should be a title, indentation, and a paragraph including who they were with, where they were, what they saw and what they did. About 10 sentences is the expectation...Don't forget to emphasize that HOOK and COOL CLOSING!
No comments:
Post a Comment